Multi-angle exterior drywall corner bead

ABSTRACT

A drywall corner bead made of high-impact plastic or other material that can be in-elastically bent to any angle at the bead itself. The corner bead can have a front layer of paper or other material capable of directly receiving paint or texture and an optional backing layer of paper or other fibrous material. The bead can be bent and re-bent inelastically as many times as needed to fit a corner.

This application is related to and claims priority from U.S. provisionalpatent application No. 60/665,412 filed Mar. 25, 2005. Application No.60/665,412 is hereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates generally to the field drywall construction andmore particularly to an exterior and drywall corner bead thatin-elastically bends at the bead to match any corner angle.

2. Description of the Related Art

The use of gypsum drywall board in modern construction is well known.Manufactured drywall sheets are nailed to studs to form interior wallsand ceilings. Before these sheets can be painted or textured, the jointsmust be taped and sealed with joint sealing compound (drywall mud).

For exterior corners, it is common to use a product generally calledcorner bead. Corner bead consists of a thin strip of metal bonded to apaper tape with a small protruding nose running down the centerline. Inaddition to regular corner bead, other corner beads are in common usewhich include both straight and “bullnose” or rounded versions. To use astandard corner bead, it first must be cut from a standard length. Thebead is nailed into position using short nails approximately every foot.The worker must: 1) keep the bead plumb or level, and 2) keep the beadat the proper angle to prevent slipping too far to one side or theother.

Once the bead is installed, the worker must “first coat” the bead. Thismeans to coat it with mud for the first time. This is very laborintensive, and it uses a large amount of mud. After the first coat, themud is allowed to dry. Drying takes about a day. After the “first coat”is dry throughout the building, the worker has to sand this first coatof mud. This is especially difficult with bullnose bead. After the“first coat” is sanded, the worker proceeds to “second coat” the beadrepeating the entire process again and waiting another day to dry. Theworker finally must again sand the bead carefully looking forimperfections, and touching these up. At this point, the bead is readyfor texture or paint. The entire process uses considerable mud, and isvery labor intensive, especially the sanding. In terms of totalconstruction time, it requires two to three days to complete all thecorners of a typical residence.

It would be advantageous to have a corner bead for finishing drywall onthe interior of buildings that can be in-elastically bent to differentangles while retaining the perfect finished appearance that is requiredfor texturing or painting, as well as a product that could be installedwithout nailing and could be prepared to directly receive paint ortexture without having to mud over the entire bead.

DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

Reference is now made to several figures of embodiments of the presentinvention.

FIG. 1A shows a perspective view of a particular embodiment.

FIG. 1B shows and end view of the embodiment of FIG. 1A.

FIG. 2 shows an expanded cross-section of the structure of a particularembodiment.

FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of the present invention in various angles.

Several illustrations and figures have been presented to better aid inthe understanding of the present invention. The scope of the presentinvention is not limited to the figures.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a drywall corner bead that includes anelongated semi-rigid non-metal flange with a central apex along acenterline end-to-end, the apex forming a bead in-elastically bendableat the bead along the centerline to form any angle, and a covering layeron a room-facing surface of the semi-rigid flange where the coveringlayer is capable of directly receiving paint or texture. The coveringlayer can be cupstock paper or other similar material. The semi-rigidflange can be made from high-impact plastic. There can also be a backinglayer of fibrous material on a wall-facing side of the semi-rigidflange. The flange can taper from the apex to each of a pair of edges.The apex can be a sharp point or can be bullnose or any other shape.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is related to a new corner bead thatin-elastically bends at the bead to form any angle. This product can beextruded from a piece of high-impact plastic that is coated on one orboth sides with paper. Any other semi-rigid material is within the scopeof the present invention. The new bead can be attached to an exteriorcorner by putting mud on each side of the corner, fitting the bead tothe corner by bending it in-elastically at the bead to any desiredangle, pressing it onto the corner, applying mud to the edges of theflanges, and feather the edges with a wide blade tool. Any method ofmudding the corner can be used including a drywall bazooka or muddingbox. The bead can optionally be nailed if desired or necessary.

Turning to FIGS. 1A-1B, a perspective and end view of an embodiment ofthe present invention is seen. Elongated flanges 2 form an angle from acenter bead 4 an apex. The flanges 2 can have an outer paper cover 3 andan inner paper cover 1 in various embodiments. Instead of a rounded apexbead 4, the product can be made in bullnose shapes known in the art, orother bead shapes. The outer paper covering 3 can optionally extendbeyond the edge of the semi-rigid flange 2. The optional inner paper orcovering material 1 can be in two parts as shown in FIGS. 1A-1B, or itcan be continuous. The entire piece can be extruded in a singleoperation. When manufactured this way, the outer fibrous material layer(paper) adheres to the plastic flange without glue.

The bead 4 is made such that it can be bent inelastically to any anglewithout the difficulties encountered in prior art metal beads. FIG. 2shows a magnified side view of the structure of the embodiment shown inFIGS. 1A-1B. It can be seen that the bead 4 has a small groove orindentation 5 on the inner side that runs along the centerline. Ifmaterial similar to high-impact plastic is used to form the flanges 2,the material bends easily in an in-elastic manner to assume and hold anyshape. If a bend is made to the wrong angle, the angle can be adjustedmany times without undue fatigue or permanent hold. Prior art metalbeads work-harden upon bending and will fatigue quickly under subsequentbends. In addition, they have a tendency to hold the first bend made inthem, not giving it up in subsequent attempts to re-bend. Also, metalbeads are very difficult to bend to the same angle along a long piece.Rather, they tend to form an angle that snakes along the length of thebead. The present invention allows easy bending and re-bending to anyangle quickly and efficiently along the entire length of a corner.

The outer paper 3 can over lap the semi-rigid flange 2, or optionally,it can be flush with it. This paper or other fibrous surface 3 can be ofa type of material that can directly receive paint or texture eliminatedthe need for mudding over the entire surface and bead. A preferredmaterial is cupstock paper.

The semi-rigid flanges 2 can be optionally tapered so that they becomethinner toward their outer edges. This embodiment makes it easier tofeather the edges with mud to produce a professionally looking, finishedcorner.

FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of the present invention bent to variousangles. Bending the device to any angle is within the scope of thepresent invention.

Several descriptions and illustrations have been presented to better aidthe understanding of the present invention. One skilled in the art willrealize that many changes and variations are possible. All of thesechanges and variations are within the scope of the present invention.

1. A drywall corner bead comprising: an elongated semi-rigid non-metalflange with a central apex along a centerline end-to-end, said apexforming a bead in-elastically bendable at said bead along saidcenterline to form any angle; a covering layer on a room-facing surfaceof said semi-rigid flange, said covering layer capable of directlyreceiving paint or texture.
 2. The drywall corner bead of claim 1wherein said semi-rigid flange is high-impact plastic.
 3. The drywallcorner bead of claim 1 further comprising a backing layer of fibrousmaterial on a wall-facing side of said semi-rigid flange.
 4. The drywallcorner bead of claim 1 wherein said covering layer is cupstock paper. 5.The drywall corner bead of claim 1 wherein said flange is tapered fromsaid apex to each of a pair of edges.
 6. The drywall corner bead ofclaim 1 wherein said apex is a sharp point.
 7. The drywall corner beadof claim 1 wherein said apex is bullnose.
 8. A drywall corner beadincluding a non-metal elongated flange with an inelastic centerlineregion that can be bent along a center line to match any wall angle andwherein, the flange is covered with a layer of cupstock paper, and theflange is tapered from a thicker region along the centerline region tothinner regions along its edges.
 9. The drywall corner bead of claim 8wherein the flange is high impact plastic.
 10. The drywall corner beadof claim 8 wherein said layer of cupstock paper extends beyond saidedges.
 11. A universal drywall bead comprising a pair of elongated highimpact plastic flanges connected together side-by-side with an inelasticcenter region, said flanges being capable of being bent and re-bentrepeatably to a plurality of different angles about said centerline,said flanges also being tapered from said center region outward toedges, the flanges covered on a room-facing side with a layer ofcupstock paper.
 12. The universal drywall bead of claim 11 furthercomprising a layer of paper on a wall-facing surface of said flanges.13. The universal drywall bead of claim 11 wherein said flanges containa plurality of holes.